A location based service (LBS) recognizes a user's location using positioning techniques and provides various kinds of information or services based on the recognition result.
Recently research into the LBS has focused on outdoor localization systems, and attention to and necessity of indoor localization have gradually increased.
With regard to indoor localization, Korean Patent Publication No. 2009-0090540 (entitled “Method for Providing LBS in Shadow Region and System, Lighting Fixture, Mobile Communication Terminal therefor”) discloses an invention in which a lighting fixture having a function that combines location information stored in advance to generate identification (ID) information using frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation or spreading codes. Further, the function transmits the ID information at predetermined intervals through a lighting module of the lighting fixture.
Upon receiving ID information from lighting fixtures installed indoors, a mobile communication terminal including an ID information receiving module is configured to transmit the ID information to a service providing server, receive location based information such as map information from the service providing server, and display the location based information.
However, the ID information generator and the lighting module for transmitting ID information need to be installed in the lighting fixture in order to provide map information or the like for a user. And therefore, the invention disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 2009-0090540 has a problem of much increasing the price of lighting fixtures.
In addition, the ID information receiving module needs to be additionally installed in the mobile communication terminal and further, ID information needs to be transmitted to the service providing server and analyzed in order to recognize a location of the mobile communication terminal. Therefore, location information of the mobile communication terminal recognized by the service providing server may be inaccurate.